Thursday, August 30, 2012

Blondies' Book Cover Artwork -- Stealing Time

Blondie's Book CoverArtwork for Stealing Time

I've been working across the Internet with a professional photographer, Jody Smyers*, to create the cover for my first novel -- Stealing Time. I've narrowed it down to seven choices and would love for you to take a minute to vote for your favorite. I'll reveal the final version in a future blog. I'm new to this whole thing so any advice or constructive comments are welcome! Please let me know what you think.

Synopsis of Stealing Time:

Ronnie Andrews, a 28 year old blonde, finds herself inexplicably thrown back in time during Charley, the first hurricane to hit Central Florida in over forty years.She finds herself hopelessly entangled in the life of Jack Ingram, a Londoner, whose world is crumbling at the hands of an unprecedented shift in time. Join Ronnie on her adventures in my debut novel -- Stealing Time -- out this summer. Be sure to watch for the release of book two and three.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Thank you for stopping by "Blondie in the Water." I hope you took a minute to vote and comment. Voting is in the upper right corner of the blog. Comments are below. Would love to hear what you think of the cover designs! Did you like the choices? Which one did you choose?

Connect With Me

When I'm not working on Stealing Time you can find me on my social media at the links below. I hope to have my novel completed by spring 2013 with book two close behind.

46 comments:

Four. Maybe try #4 without the hands on the clockface? Or with adding more lightning for the hands? I also like #2. And #5 (the one I did) might look better with the Font and water behind your name like all the other ones. 7 and 3 are my least favorites.

I'd pick number four only because the background is a little lighter and easier to grab attention. What was your first choice? I recommend you go with whatever it was because first hunches are normally correct :)

My favourite is number 3! I like the idea of multiple timepieces! It shows the time slip involved in the novel! A single clock face, doesn't tell a story! I love what small bits of part one I've read! Parts of the prologue are still vivid in my mind! Its going to be a monster!!

My favourite is number 3! I like the idea of multiple timepieces! It shows the time slip involved in the novel! A single clock face, doesn't tell a story! I love what small bits of part one I've read! Parts of the prologue are still vivid in my mind! Its going to be a monster!!

Numbers two and five stick out to me the most, and I think number two is probably the most appealing, if only by a little. It's something about the placement of the clouds in relation to the clock - it gives more of an impression of impending danger, of time clicking quickly by. The two I don't care for are numbers five and three - five because of the typeface - it 'shouts' too loudly (though that might not be so bad, really) and three. I don't like the colour scheme on three. The gold-coloured clocks are too gaudy and take away from the pressing worry of the situation. I was referred over here from Twitter, and I'm glad I came! Whoever did your covers does fantastic work.

Great reply! Thanks so much for all the feedback Morgann! Really appreciate you taking the time! Love the details and you've given me a few ideas to try out.

The photographer is Jody Smyers at @jojo_photo on twitter and http://www.JodySmyersPhotography.com on the web in case you're interested! I've since added him to the blog, so I appreciate the complement (for him)!

I also like number 3 because of the multiple time pieces, but I like the typeface of number 1. I also agree with Morgann's assessment of the gold clocks - I'd love to see a draft of number 3 without the gold color on the clocks and the typeface of number 1 - But I do agree with everyone here that they are all pretty neat and any one would be great!

Hi! I finally figured out where to come to leave you a comment....{sheesh} I liked all 7 and I anticipate you are going to have a very hard time picking one! : ) Having said that, I'll share why I picked #3; the gold clocks just drew me in - not sure they NEED to be gold though if that's a concern... but they gave me the idea of multiple times, and more than one "episode" perhaps.... My #2 choice would've been #6 - the overall spacing of the items just looked very good to me. And I thought the typeface on #7 looked the most "current", but I'm not a super trendy person....(understatement), but noticed bc I had just been book shopping this past week. Will be fun to see which one "wins" the cover! Oh, & I really liked your voice on the Intro on this Blog about voting. You have a good voice.

Blondee, thanks so much for your comments! Really appreciate you for stealing some time (ha,did you see how I did that) from your busy day! Great feedback! I agree, it's hard to chose among these great covers that Jody did for me. I have about 10 others that I didn't use on this blog. That was hard enough. Not to get to 1. May do a different cover for UK if those ppl have a different take on it.

Okay, I didn't look at all the other comments as I didn't want to be swayed. Here are my thoughts.

At first glance, I like number four the most. There are two reasons for this. One, the lighting is better with the clouds closer. It makes the whole cover stand out more. The second is that the clock is larger, again, more in your face, important for thumbnail size on Amazon.

However, I like that the lightning shoots through the clock on number three, but that could be a personal preference.

The one thing I didn't like about number four is the typography. I like that it's bigger and that it stands out more, but I much prefer that of number five. If number five's typography was bold and/or larger, then added to number four, I think it would make the perfect storm... okay, that was corny, haha.

The one other part I wanted to mention was your name at the bottom. I think it looks better with just your name, or if you wanted to keep, "A Novel by" I think it would look better above your name in a smaller size.

Regardless of what I say, they all look great. Coming along very nicely. :)

Thank you Kirkus! Great to have your input. I really like your idea about the font change for #4 because I'm definitely looking for the perfect storm. My SIL knows the dude that wrote that btw. Or maybe she just met him. Either way, I'm off topic. Good advice on the name part too. Appreciate you taking the time off of your WRATH promo to comment!

I find #4 the best out of them. This is a good combination of simple typography and the clock over the lightning bolt has the suggestion of power, time, and energy coming together in a major force.

You've also removed the black boxes top and bottom which is normally a strong indication of a book being designed as DIY project - however I can see the lightning going underneath the island at the bottom. I would recommend just adding the black portion of the bottom under the land to bring it together so it looks in sync (like the bottom of #5). You don't need the top box, just blacken the bottom to make it look seamless.

Also just out of curiosity- are you going to be releasing this as an eBook? If so, have you checked to see how dark it is on a Kindle/Kobo/Nook? As a black and white image you can still possibly make out most of it but on an eReader the images can tend to be quite dark so just be wary of that. If you have an eReader yourself I'd consider putting it on there to check!

Thank you so much Scarlett! Great advice. I am going to release as an ebook and a great idea to check it out first to see how it looks. Really appreciate you taking the time to check out the covers and give me such detailed comments!

I like #4. I've been told that having bright, shiny objects on covers is good, and Number 4 has the greatest contrast between dark and light that draws you in. Because the light is somewhat centered as opposed to being spread across the whole cover, it also seems to convey the idea of flow, which alludes to time.... That's my 2.5 cents! Great work!

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Welcome to Blondie in the Water

Thanks for stopping by Blondie in the Water. I hope you enjoy my water adventures and an occasional update on my writing.

My time travel thriller, Stealing Time and short story Blow are available on Amazon for ebook, and Amazon, Createspace, and Barnes and Noble for paperback. You can find more about me on my website www.kjwaters.com.

My podcast with Suzanne Kelman is called Blondie and the Brit. It is available on podbean and iTunes. Visit our website here: www.blondieandbrit.com. Please check out the links below.

I've used Blondie in the Water as therapy my current state of affairs -- that I am landlocked in Dirtville not near any decent body of water. Look below at my varied water adventures, from Maine to Florida and my most popular blog Blondie in Bermuda.

Please make yourself at home. There is a lot to check out on the blog. Scroll down to see who has also stopped by and check out my new feature the flag counter.

In
addition to her writing, she is the CEO of Blondie's Custom Book Covers and the
co-host of the popular podcast Blondie and the Brit.

She
has a Master’s in Business and over 15 years of experience in the marketing
field. Before quitting her job to raise a family and work on writing she was
the Director of Marketing and communications for a national behavioral healthcare company.